Students of the Game Read Free Page A

confidence about him. I recognize him from varsity try-outs last weekend, as someone who didn’t make the team, Carver Halsey. Pleased with myself for remembering, I head over in his direction.
    “Hey man, you expecting company?” I joke, mo tioning to all the empty seats. He laughs and motions for me to sit, seeming not even fazed by the fact he’s sitting alone on the first day of school. “You new?” I know this is a stupid question to ask but small talk obviously isn’t my sport.
    “Yeah, m y parents were forced to move here because my grandmother’s dying,” he says flatly.
    “Oh, sorry to hear that, dude.”
    Carver just shrugs, “It happens.” Apparently death is another thing that doesn’t faze Carver Halsey.
    “Sorry you didn’t make varsity…you seem pretty fit. And fast, too.”
    Carver shrugs again, “Whatever, it’s cool. Coach Miller’s a dick anyway. Besides, I’ve already got my eyes set on something else.” He smiles and I follow his gaze over to a table full of freshmen girls or maybe just one in particular, Missy Flemings. I watch as she brings a hand up to her bow shaped mouth, stifling a laugh, her eyes wide with over exaggeration. It’s as if she’s consciously aware of every single motion she makes, like they’re almost rehearsed. I can tell she’ll have no trouble in the popularity department for the next four years. Missy flirted a bit with me in Junior High and she’s definitely cute, but I’ve always been too busy training and trying my hardest to keep my grades decent to have time for a girlfriend, as much as I’d like one.
    We discuss the table full of girls for a few minutes, and I won’t repeat some of the comments that are said. Hey, I am a guy after all. Though, I will admit the ones about tits were mostly from Carver’s mouth, not mine. Not soon after that, a dude comes up to our table with a blond chick hanging on his arm. I know him as a senior, one of the Sea Hound’s linebackers.
    “Hey, it’s Bryce…right?”
      I nod my chin out in recognition, “Yeah, what’s up…?”
      “Bobby,” he fills in the blank for me. “Look, I’m having a little get-together this weekend, if you want to come.” Bobby slides a slip of paper with an address on it across the table. The blond girl tugs on his sleeve and he bends down so she can whisper into his ear, her eyes never leaving Carver’s face.
    “Oh, your friend’s invited too.” He nods at Carver and the blond girl smiles at us both, as they turn to walk away.
    “Well, what do you say?” Carver leans back and rests his hands behind his head. “You game?”
      “Yeah,” I smile, “I’m totally game.”
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     

CHAPTER FOUR
     
    JOY     
     
     
    When I exit the school’s heavy double doors, I find that it’s really starting to feel like the last week of October. After a bought of surprisingly mild t-shirt weather, I wish I had brought a coat. The parking lot has mostly cleared and as I approach my elderly, green Jetta, I see Farah sitting on the hood. I frown, forgetting that I had promised to give her rides until her car is out of the shop. Guess now is a good time to do that explaining and it appe ars she’s thinking the same.
    Farah jumps down off the front of the car, springs of bright red hair bouncing behind her, and grabs the keys out of my hand. “I drive, you talk,” she says pointedly, and makes her way around to the driver ’s side.
    Despite my sour mood today, I find myself smiling. Farah has been one of my best friends and my savior since she moved here to Massachusetts in the seventh grade. Her dad didn’t want to live in the city, so her family bought a house in the suburbs just a few blocks from ours. We’ve been inseparable ever since.
    Farah is smart, and could be a really good student, but she chooses to channel her energy the artistic route. She’s a natural at all things painting, drawing,